[ 2021-03-15 ]

Telecom workers to embark on strike from today
Ghana’s telecommunications system faces an
imminent shutdown as telecom workers threaten
nationwide strike action from today 15 March.

The Telecom and IT Professionals Union (TIP), made
up of telecom engineers and technicians who manage
the key technical operations for the telecom
operators, has served notice to the National
Labour Commission (NLC) and their employers to
embark on the strike action due to poor conditions
of service.

The move by the union follows a deadlock in salary
negotiations between the union and the management
of the four sub-contractors (SBCs) who have been
engaged by Hauwei Technologies Limited to maintain
the technical operations of MTN, AirtelTigo and
Vodafone.

According to the workers, the four SBCs; Linfra
Ghana Limited, MP Infrastructure Ghana Limited,
Reime Ghana Limited and Reliance Personal
Services, have refused to enhance their
remuneration over the years despite the huge
profits declared annually by the telcos and
Huawei.



At the current salary negotiation by the Joint
Standing Negotiation Committee (JSNC), which was
meant to have taken place in September 2020, the
Union proposed a 20 per cent pay increase, but
management locked its offer at 3 per cent, after
initially offering zero per cent.

In a letter dated March 12, 2021, to inform the
NLC and the SBCs of the intended action, the union
explained the four SBCs have failed to act in good
faith in addressing the concerns of the workers,
and therefore, the union “do not wish to
cooperate with management going forward until the
workers’ concerns are resolved.”

“Given the above facts and conditions, we
respectfully write to inform you that our earlier
industrial action is coming on the 15th of March
2021 as earlier planned,” said the letter signed
by Israel Edem Agbegbor, General Secretary of the
Union.

Source - Joyfm

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